Inventing helps him cope with disease

March 31, 2006

Steve Riedle of South Bend didn't design a better snowball. But he may have used one to come up with a nifty -- and needed -- invention. Two winters ago, Steve was shoveling snow off his family's sidewalk on Park Avenue when his nose started bleeding. "It was really dripping," he admits. Steve, 40, is a hemophiliac, and any kind of bleeding can put him in danger. Three of his brothers have died from this clotting disorder. Steve already has lost one of his legs. "But I didn't want to go inside until I had finished the job," he recalls. "So I made a snowball and then broke it in half and put the two pieces on each side of my nose with a pinch." After a few minutes, his nose stopped bleeding. "This worked better than any other method I had used in trying to stop a nosebleed," he says. "It's actually difficult to form an ice bag or get a pack to fit efficiently over the nose and be able to pinch, too." And so that little light bulb went on in his head. An inventor by nature, Steve wondered if there was any product on the market that worked that well. "So I called the Indiana Hemophilia Center in Indianapolis to see what they would suggest for a nosebleed," he continues. "I was told that a frozen bag of peas might be the best option." He thought he could do better than that. And he apparently has. During the last year, he has developed a nose ice pack he has named Nosebudd. It is made out of three pouches of gel, foam rubber, electrical tape and vinyl. Kept frozen until needed, Nosebudd folds neatly around the nose with the gel packs pressing on the MOOR front and both sides of the nose. Steve hopes this idea will -- shall we say -- snowball. He already had a provisional patent on his idea, and a Chinese manufacturing company is about to make a couple dozen samples for him. (Steve tried American manufacturers without success). If all goes well, he will have 5,000 made -- and then who knows how many? "This invention has given me a reason to get up in the morning and be excited about the day," Steve says. "I'm really pretty much sick everyday, but this helps me focus on something." While some of his other inventions -- such as an elaborate paintball machine-gun and a wet wipe container that fits into car's cup holder -- have either been too late or impractical, this one seems to have a chance. "I think a nose ice pack could work for sports injuries and for clotting disorders and for hemophiliacs." Especially for hemophiliacs. His parents, Marialyce and the late Frank Riedle, had 11 children, and five were born with hemophilia. Three have died. Both Steve and his 44-year-old brother, Jack, both are afflicted with the disease and live at home with their mother. Both are disabled. Both still feel the pain of the death of their brother, Frank Jr., who was in between them in age and who died of a brain hemorrhage linked to his hemophilia. "Of the three of us, Frank was the one who seemed not as bothered by it as much," Steve says. "But he died at the age of 19 while playing Frisbee with friends." Hemophilia is a blood disorder associated with excessive bleeding -- both externally and internally -- that often causes scarring of the joints, vision loss, chronic anemia, neurological problems and premature death. One of Steve's other siblings died after childbirth and another only lived until the age of 8. Although newer medications make hemophilia more manageable, there currently is no cure. Steve, a Clay High School and Holy Cross College graduate, wants to fight back in some way. He hopes his ice pack invention can at least ease some of the nosebleed problems -- and put himself on the map as an inventor. Steve works out of his family's home with other inventions in the making. "He can fix just about everything around the house, too," his mother, Marialyce says. "He is very handy -- and very clever." But Steve readily admits that he is no businessman. He says he has relied heavily on Jim Gregar of the Small Business Development Center in South Bend for advice and has been networking with other inventors. "They say that if you sell your idea to someone else, you have about a 1-in-1,800 chance of it becoming a product," Steve says. That's not much better than a snowball's chance in ... "But if you sell it yourself, you have a 1-in-6 chance. He will take those odds. And if he succeeds? "It's really not about the money -- it's more to help people -- but I would probably get some things for my (16) nieces and nephews, and I might also buy myself a boat." He certainly deserves some smooth sailing in life.Bill Moor's column appears on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Contact him at bmoor@sbtinfo.com, or write him at the South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626; (574) 235-6072. Bill Moor Commentary front and both sides of the nose. Steve hopes this idea will -- shall we say -- snowball. He already had a provisional patent on his idea, and a Chinese manufacturing company is about to make a couple of dozen samples for him. (Steve tried American manufacturers without success). If all goes well, he will have 5,000 made -- and then who knows how many? "This invention has given me a reason to get up in the morning and be excited about the day," Steve says. "I'm really pretty much sick every day, but this helps me focus on something." While some of his other inventions -- such as an elaborate paintball machine gun and a wet wipe container that fits into a car's cup holder -- have either been too late or impractical, this one seems to have a chance. "I think a nose ice pack could work for sports injuries and for clotting disorders and for hemophiliacs." Especially for hemophiliacs. His parents, Marialyce and the late Frank Riedle, had 11 children, and five were born with hemophilia. Three have died. Both Steve and his 44-year-old brother, Jack, are afflicted with the disease and live at home with their mother. Both are disabled. Both still feel the pain of the death of their brother, Frank Jr., who was in between them in age and who died of a brain hemorrhage linked to his hemophilia. "Of the three of us, Frank was the one who seemed not as bothered by it as much," Steve says. "But he died at the age of 19 while playing Frisbee with friends." Hemophilia is a blood disorder associated with excessive bleeding -- both externally and internally -- that often causes scarring of the joints, vision loss, chronic anemia, neurological problems and premature death. One of Steve's other siblings died after childbirth and another only lived until the age of 8. Although newer medications make hemophilia more manageable, there currently is no cure. Steve, a Clay High School and Holy Cross College graduate, wants to fight back in some way. He hopes his ice pack invention can at least ease some of the nosebleed problems -- and put himself on the map as an inventor.